


Atop a Golden Cloud

by Neyiea



Category: Rise of the Guardians (2012)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-03-27
Updated: 2013-03-27
Packaged: 2017-12-06 16:44:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,629
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/737880
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Neyiea/pseuds/Neyiea
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sandy was the first spirit Jack ever met. Over the course of the years they become best friends and though he wants something more Jack refuses to be greedy. Surely he can just be happy with the relationship they have?</p>
<p>Then Sandy is shot down in front of him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Jack remembers the first time he met Sandy with a clarity that is reserved for no other memory. He was no more than a few weeks old and was just beginning to accept that maybe- maybe he would never be seen or heard. Maybe he was meant to be alone, trapped in some sort of terrible purgatory. 

"At least I've got you, wind," he'd said as it wound around him and, without any warning, lifted him up through the canopy of trees that surrounded his lake.

"Hey, I thought we agreed you'd forewarn me when you did stuff like that." Jack complained even as the wind forcefully turned him around.

His breath caught in his throat.

There was a golden cloud drifting across the night sky, glittering brilliantly in the moonlight, and sitting atop it was a person. They couldn't have been an ordinary mortal, _there was no way_. Maybe they were like _him._

He'd sucked in air abruptly.

What if they could hear him? _See him?_

"Wind, please," he'd begged and it scooped him up and took him further into the sky.

The little man, golden as the cloud he sat upon, looked up at him in surprise when Jack rose in front of him. He _could_ see him.

Jack grinned brightly. "Hello! I'm Jack Frost! Who are you? How are you? _What_ are you? I mean, no offence meant, but you don't look like a normal human, but I guess I don't look like one either," he babbled, unable to stop. It was so nice to have someone other than the wind to talk to and _hear_ him. "What's your name?"

The golden man had laughed silently and patted a space on the cloud beside him.

"You want me to sit with you?"

He nodded and Jack could hardly believe his luck. He sat down beside him, barely able to keep still for excitement.

The golden man picked at a small bit of his cloud and rolled it between his fingers before holding it out for Jack to gingerly take.

"Sand?" He rubbed at the grains. "I don't understand. Can you- are you not able to speak?"

He shook his head and gestured pointedly to the sand before above his head he created a small shape, curved like a waning moon with the uppermost tip connecting to the middle. Jack had seen this shape before while sneaking into the small school in the village.

"E?"

He made another motion to indicate the sand, then the letter over his head.

"Sand... E. Sandy? Sandy! Is that your name?"

The man, Sandy, nodded happily.

"Hello Sandy, I'm Jack- oh! I said that already, didn't I? I'm sorry, I'm just really excited." He gripped at his staff nervously. What if Sandy found his enthusiasm annoying?

Much to his relief Sandy just smiled fondly in response and Jack couldn't help but smile back.

It was the start of a beautiful friendship.

They didn't cross paths every night, sometimes not even once a week, but they usually managed to see each other several times each month which was more than enough to keep Jack content. He loved being listened to and trying to decipher Sandy's own way of communicating. They'd spend long stretches of the night together, fumbling through conversations about what they'd been up to. When they weren't speaking they sat in companionable silence, their sides brushing as Jack shifted ever closer, eager to feel a solid, living presence and not fear about passing through it.

It didn't take long for Sandy to realize what Jack was up to and, to Jack's everlasting joy, he instigated even more touches. Whenever Jack flew up to greet him he held his arms wide open and Jack all but dove into them, longing to be held for however long Sandy could spare his arms.

There are other touches too, they ruffle each other's hair, playfully nudge one another, hold hands for hours. But Jack cannot stay with Sandy all of the time, so he gets into the habit of pulling the Guardian into a hug before he leaves, a way to tide himself over until their next meeting.

In the meantime Jack spreads snow, corrals the wind, and people watches. He sees a lot of things, takes note of the ways they interact with and touch each other. As the years pass by they become less formal, more open, and many rituals and gestures that were once only ever performed behind closed doors now take place in areas Jack can see.

He watches as couples kiss each other on their hands, cheeks, foreheads, eyelids, _lips_ , and feels a small stab of envy, but that feeling is quickly forgotten whenever he settles down at Sandy's side. Sandy has already given him so much, to ask for anything more than what he already has would be greedy.

When Sandy approaches him one night, long after their first encounter, to tell him that he's been chosen as a Guardian his first thought is that he's just reading the dreamsand wrong. It doesn't happen very often anymore but sometimes Sandy goes too fast and Jack just can't make out what he's saying.

"I think I misunderstood, could you repeat that?"

Sandy gives an exaggerated huff and goes slower, using the same sequence of images but making them bolder.

"Okay okay, but why?"

A crescent moon answers his question and he casts his gaze up to the sky in disbelief.

"Why wouldn't he- why- uhg!" Jack crosses his arms and slouches. "He never tells me anything."

Sandy pats his back and he relaxes into the touch automatically, even though he still feels a little irate.

"Do I have to? It's not that I don't respect your work but this really doesn't seem like my sort of thing. You know me, Sandy, I'm not Guardian material. Even if I was, why now? Why not three hundred years ago?" He sighs and rubs a hand against his temples.

Small hands pry his own away from his face and he looks up to see Sandy giving him one of those earnest gazes that make Jack want to do anything for him. It's unfair, Sandy knows how weak he is against that face.

"I'm not going."

Sandy's eyes go impossibly wide and his lower lip juts out. He's gone right for the big guns tonight.

"Sandy, I can't-"

His eyes go glossy and his lip begins to tremble.

"Oh, fine."

Sandy's face lights up and he happily leans in close, close enough that for a second Jack thinks they're about to breach new territory with their touches, to ruffle Jack's hair. Jack lets his gaze drop and tries not to blush.

"Yeah, whatever. Nothing good will come of this, you'll see."

He prepares himself for a long, uncomfortable night, the only bright side to which is that Sandy will be with him every step of the way.

Until he is not.

When Sandy's light diminishes, when his golden glow is swept away in a tide of all-consuming black, something inside of Jack cracks open. Hairline fractures spreading, a buildup of pressure making them stretch further apart.

Sandy was his best friend, the one person he always knew he could count on to be there for him, his _everything_. There was still so much they had left to do together, so many things Jack had never told him, never really tried to show him.

What if Sandy had died without truly knowing how much Jack cared for him? How much he loved him?

The thought drives him over the edge. He doesn't care if going after Pitch right now is a death sentence, he just has to do _something_ , even if he is too late.

Three hundred years of nothing but time, but somehow he let this happen.

The funeral is a short, painful affair that Jack keeps on the outskirts on. None of the others really know how close he and Sandy were and he needs time alone to grieve and mourn not only Sandy's passing.

All the words he'd never spoken, the touches he'd held back, the kisses he was too afraid to ask for. He'd never have a chance, now. There is a saying: it is better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.

Jack begs to differ.


	2. Chapter 2

When everything's over and settled and Sandy's alive, _thank God he's alive_ , Jack can barely keep from grabbing hold of the other Guardian and never letting go.

He manages to control himself on the sleigh ride back to the Pole, but as the others make their way inside he hangs back and makes a move to grab Sandy's shoulder yet hesitates, afraid to touch, like Sandy will shatter into dust at the slightest caress.

"Sandy, wait."

Sandy turns to him and glances at Jack's hovering limb with a sad, knowing look. He brings his own hand up to gently push Jack's down to rest on his shoulder and Jack's entire body sinks with the action. He falls to his knees and chokes on a sob as he gathers Sandy into his arms and brings him as close as possible, hiding his face in the crook of the other's neck and letting his tears run freely. Sandy rubs his back up and down in soothing motions.

"I thought I lost you." Sandy hugs him back tightly and Jack can feel him shake his head.

"I'm sorry, I'm so _sorry_ Sandy. I was too late. We should have waited for the others to wake up before going after the Nightmares. It was all my fau-"

Sandy pulls away slightly and presses a finger to his lips, looking Jack over with more concern than he feels he deserves.

"But it was, _it was_."

Sandy shakes his head and runs his fingers through Jack's bangs. Then he presses their foreheads together, looking into Jack's eyes with a determined expression that quickly turns tender as he wipes away Jack's tears.

"Can I- I don't want to let you go yet, can we stay like this for a while?"

Sandy nods and Jack allows himself to relax slightly. He sits down fully on the cold, hard ground and rests his forehead against the warm swell of Sandy's midsection, eyes slipping half shut at the rhythmic motion of each inhale and exhale and the faint sound of a heartbeat.

He slowly becomes aware of another sound, the faint flutter of wings and a shrill series of chirps. One of Tooth's fairies, not Baby Tooth judging by the way she's keeping her distance, come to check up on them and see what was taking so long.

There is a soft hiss of sand moving and more chirps in response, then Sandy removes his hand from Jack's hair to wave as the fairy heads back to the others.

"Sandy, there's something I have to tell you."

The hand lightly drops to his crown and small fingers once again run through his hair.

"I don't know how to say it." He sniffs and pulls away, cheeks starting to flush as Sandy gazes down with a small smile and prompts him to go on.

"Sandy, I-"

Baby Tooth flies in then, swirling around Jack's head excitedly before tugging on his hood. Apparently they're taking too long.

"I'll tell you later." He slowly stands up and gratefully takes Sandy's outstretched hand in his own as they follow Baby Tooth to where the others have situated themselves. Their tangled fingers earn them several looks and Baby Tooth once tries to physically separate them, but Jack cannot bear even the thought of letting go of Sandy's hand, and not once throughout their time together does Sandy try to pull away. That has to mean something, right?

The others, for the most part, seem content to leave them be, but after a solid hour of glancing curiously at their interlocked hands Tooth finally breaks.

"He's not going to disappear, Jack," she beings gently, hands lifting up as if to soften the impact of her words, "Sandy is safe, everyone is safe from Pitch."

Baby Tooth chirps aggressively in agreement and once again attempts to detach them, pushing and pulling at their fingers without luck.

"I know he's not going to disappear, but," he pauses, unsure how to explain how badly he needs this contact, "Sandy's my best friend, and I can't," get the image of him vanishing into darkness out of his mind, "I can't let go yet."

"Best friend," Bunny repeats curiously, "have you known each other long?"

"Three hundred years. I met Sandy a couple of weeks after I first became a spirit."

A stunned silence greets them and Jack fights off the urge to once again hide his face in the crook of Sandy's neck. He looks down at is feet instead.

North takes a deep breath, obviously about to ask a lot of questions, and Sandy's fingers flex around Jack's as he signs something at the others that makes their curious looks turn into something more knowing.

Baby Tooth squeaks at them indignantly and Tooth lightly shushes her, lovingly scooping her up and giving the pair a tight lipped smile.

"Sorry about that, she's gotten very attached to you." Her smile widens a little, becomes warmer. "She's just a bit jealous, is all."

When the initial thrill of victory dissipates and everyone has to get back to work Jack leaves with Sandy, letting go of his hand only so that Sandy can form a familiar cloud of dreamsand.

He pats the spot beside him, a gesture achingly reminiscent of their first meeting, and Jack settles down in the space, just as happy to be there as that first time.

He leans his head against Sandy's shoulder and the older spirit silently chuckles and brings up a hand to toy with the short hairs on the back of Jack's neck. He lets himself enjoy the silent contact without interruption for a while, but the need to tell or show Sandy how he feels is steadily building up inside of him and if he doesn't do something about it soon he feels like he may never have the chance again.

Even Guardians can die, every moment they have is a precious gift meant to be cherished and used to the fullest.

"About that thing I wanted to tell you."

Sandy tugs lightly at his hair, curious. 

"I love you."

The fingers pause briefly and Jack casts a shy gaze up at Sandy's face. The other Guardian looks cautious as he questions what kind of love. As a friend? A brother? A comrade in arms?

"No no, well, those kinds too." Jack turns his head back down. "But also so much more. I love you more than anything."

He closes his eyes and leans in to press a kiss against the corner of Sandy's smile, when he rocks back Sandy's cheeks are glowing a bright orange and Jack feels his own flush in response.

"Um, do you-" He cuts himself off when Sandy takes his face in his hands and stands up to comfortably press a kiss to Jack's forehead, then to each of his cheeks.

Jack feels joyous laugher bubble up inside him and he sets it free as he wraps his arms tightly around Sandy and drags him back into a hug.

"I love you Sandy," he says again, he doesn't think he'll ever get sick of saying it. He'll repeat those words every day for the rest of eternity, he's sure of it.

He doesn't even have to look at the sand's assurances that his feelings are returned, just nuzzles further into their embrace, feels the way the other affectionately reels him in, and knows.

Sandy loves him back.


End file.
